Sophie Brunner Pac-12 freshman of the week for Arizona State

Tuesday

Dec 3, 2013 at 11:26 AM

Sophie Brunner continues to make a case for herself as the greatest girls basketball player to ever come out of this area, challenging former Freeport center Jenny Crouse and Belvidere guard Amanda Levens (now an assistant coach at Arizona State, who helped recruit Brunner).

Brunner led Aqun to back-to-back Class 1A state titles the last two years. Now the 6-foot-1 forward has been named Pac-12 freshman of the week .

Brunner averaged 9.0 points and 6.3 rebounds and shot 82 percent from the field in Arizona State's three wins in the Cancun Classic.

In the last two games of the tournament, Brunner averaged 11.5 points and nine rebounds and shot 7-for-9 from the floor and 9-fior-12 on free throws in wins over No. 11-ranked North Carolina and Arkansas State. Arizona State beat Illinois in its first game in the tournament.

And Brunner did this coming off a sprained ankle she suffered against Texas Tech the middle of last month.

Brunner now leads Arizona State in field goal percentage (65.4 percent) and is third in rebounds (5.3).

Levens also played at Arizona State, where she was a two-time All-Pac-10 guard. Crouse played for the University of North Dakota (my alma mater) and led UND to three consecutive Division II national titles (the only three the Sioux have ever won) and was twice named Division II player of the year. Crouse and Levens were both named to the Rockford Register Star's 5-person All-Century girls basketball team. Crouse has also been named to the UND Hall of Fame and to the NCAA Division II's 25th-year Anniversary Team.